The Japanese schooling system must teach acceptance and stoicism above all else because there’s a total lack of confrontation here.

A fellow teacher set a roleplay between two students today based on conflicting news reports in the hope that it would spark some debate over who had the correct version. On hearing the opposing evidence, both instead assumed that they had got it wrong themselves, and proceded to apologise to the other.

The Japanese never say “No” to someone. They might say “It’s a bit….”, meaning “a bit difficult” or “a bit wrong”. If they are feeling brave they might say “Different”. Remarkably, an accepted way to reject an offer of a date seems to be to just stand there like a statue and stay silent! Saying no to somebody seems to be a huge insult. Mind you, “you are stupid” is one of the strongest insults you can say here…